Richard Avis is on a mission, a mission he sums up like this, "what I'm doing is travelling the world and meeting people born on exactly the same day as myself ... to see how their lives are different, to see if there's any similarities in our lives ... and to address the issues that are important to them".

He's taken a few months unpaid leave from his office job in London to undertake this task.

The challenge was set by some of Richard's friends, who originally proposed he should "meet 40 people born on the same day" before he turned 40.

He's since broadened the idea to cover meeting as many different people born on that particular day from as many different backgrounds as possible.

It's not as easy as it sounds however, as Richard points out "the chances of walking down the street and bumping into someone born on the same day as yourself is about one in 25,000".